Missy Elliott is currently on her Out Of This World tour, but her futuristic hip-hop is leaving Earth in more ways than one.
NASA — y’know, the ones who are actually good at spaceships — announced on Monday (July 15) that it had transmitted Missy Elliott’s 1997 breakout hit “The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly)” to Venus through its Deep Space Network from the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s Deep Space Station 13 in California on Friday, July 12. According to NASA, the distance the song traveled is about 158 million miles, taking nearly 14 minutes to reach Venus at the speed of light.
This marks the first-ever time NASA has broadcast a hip-hop song into space — and they sure picked an appropriate one. NASA’s Deep Space Network system has transmitted only one other song into space: The Beatles’ “Across The Universe.” The Digital and Technology Division director of NASA’s Office of Communications, Brittany Brown, explained why Missy was chosen to be just the second musical act and the first hip-hop one transmitted to space.
“Both space exploration and Missy Elliott’s art have been about pushing boundaries,” Brown said. “Missy has a track record of infusing space-centric storytelling and futuristic visuals in her music videos, so the opportunity to collaborate on something out of this world is truly fitting.”
Missy continues to make history; last year, she was the first female rapper to be inducted into the Rock and Rock Hall of Fame.
